Untitled Sherlock

Here’s a fandom I love to paint but haven’t for a while. Sherlock. And not just any Sherlock, but the BBC’s rendition of it. Because I am a sucker for a Brit with a classical Shakespearean background.

This painting was a challenge for me. I painted it back-to-back with my Doctor Who piece. I had paint, time and energy to spare and a real need to get this one done. I pre-plan all my paintings and the queue is rather backed up, so my goal is to get out as many as I can before I head out to Toronto in December.

I am so in love with my 12″x24″ canvases. They can be a bitch to frame but they are true love to paint on. The very shape forces compositional decisions I never have to make on my trusty 16″x20″s. But challenge is the joy in this journey.

I chose to start this one differently. Changing things up means I don’t get stuck in a rut. Sure, I can paint the same all the time, but where’s the fun in that? Then I become a painting robot, and while I’ve always wanted to be a bionic woman, that’s not exactly the goal of painting.

Sherlock is so intense that as soon as I added in the dark brown to the canvas, his personality came out. Try painting eye to eye with him! It can be unnerving and intense.

Then there was a lot of pink and orange and back and forth. This painting was fiddly. I had wanted to see what I could do in an hour, but I ended up just shy of two hours. I couldn’t leave him unfinished and I wasn’t going to sacrifice quality for speed.

I think it totally worked out. Lots of layers. Lots of details. And yet huge swaths of white and flat colours. This style is quite the contrast.

“Untitled Sherlock”

12″x24″

Acrylic on canvas

I am on the move! London! Toronto! Toronto! Montreal! And more! Want to keep up? My schedule is here and being updated as dates firm up. Art always looks better in person.